A second Roscoff Cafe, on Arthur Street just down from Corn Market in the centre of Belfast, is the latest development of Paul and Jeanne Rankin's Roscoff empire, and it fits in somewhere between the formality and stylishness of the original restaurant and the informality and stylishness of the first Roscoff Cafe.
The menu, therefore, is a laminated production which offers a respectably broad range of dishes: a trio of soups; five starters; a quintet of pizzas on focaccia bread; seven salads, six styles of sandwich; a trio of pasta dishes; and six main dishes. As one would expect from such shrewd and experienced operators, the food is both achieveable for the kitchen and desirable for the customer: some asparagus ravioli with mushrooms and cream was elegant and simple, and a focaccia pizza with leek and black pudding with mascarpone, Parmesan and truffle oil was light and smart, and suffered only from a slight dryness, caused mainly by the type of black pudding used. This dish, invented by Bernadette O'Shea, needs a very moist pudding to achieve the correct, subtle balance between the ingredients.
The desserts - the same as those offered in the Fountain Street cafe - are excellent and so are the various drinks and coffees. This is a smart production, with cool school colours, and as at the Fountain Street Cafe, you can quickly grab a sandwich or some bread at a separate counter.
Roscoff Cafe, Arthur Street. Tel: (01232) 310108